A unique and otherworldly sherry

My pulse quickens at this time of year when La Gitana’s En Rama arrives on our shores, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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published
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La Gitana, En Rama, Manzanilla, Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana, Sanlcar de Barrameda, Spain (about £16.50, Connolly's, 0121-2369 269, Ellis Wharton Wines, 01726-825255; MagnumWineShop.co.uk; VinQuinn.com; Lea & Sandeman, 020-7244 0522).

My pulse quickens at this time of year when La Gitana's En Rama is shipped over to the UK for its annual, limited-release run. My tipped bottle this week is the wild, revved-up, mesmerising version of the everyday glugger, La Gitana Manzanilla (£10.99, Waitrose), itself a stunning, bone dry wine. Made from free-run juice and using only natural yeasts for fermentation, this is one of the most unique and otherworldly wines on the planet.

The term "En Rama" means that this sherry is unfiltered and unfined, so it is effectively like drinking it straight from the barrel. You must track it down at all costs if you love dry sherry. Not content with one scoop today, and going for a record four sherries on one page, Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana Hidalgo (£13.99, reduced to £11.99 each, mix six price, Majestic) is the single-vineyard, aged version of La Gitana, and it is the least expensive wine in the world that I have scored 20/20 in my notes.

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For the very first time, a second 20/20 from this esteemed estate goes on sale in May La Gitana Anniversario (about £35) is an 800-bottle production, Pasada Pastrana-style wine with an extra three years ageing and it is being released this year to celebrate the 225th anniversary of Bodegas Hidalgo. It is perfect.

l Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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